Political Education In Times Of Populism

"In professional and academic contexts nothing is more important than helping people to understand and engage with democratic society. Sant has written an excellent book which helps greatly towards that end. She has developed incisive new arguments about the nature of contemporary politics and education. Using the most recent as well as classic literature, she explores key ideas and issues. Through wide ranging discussions and by referring to her own valuable empirical work she characterizes and creates thoughtful insights and innovative pedagogical approaches. This book achieves the very difficult task of illuminating complex ideas at the same time as helping to determine practical ways to achieve social justice through education. Political education has been neglected for too long. This book is a bold new step in its achievement." —Ian Davies, Emeritus Professor, University of York, UK This book examines political education in times of democratic crisis, polarisation and uncertainty. Using populism as a diagnostic tool, the book scrutinises current democratic practices and considers alternatives for future social studies and citizenship education. The author examines contemporary events including Brexit, the Catalan referendum for independence and protests in Chile to ask how democratic educators can respond to times of crisis. Centered on themes of knowledge and ideology, the book draws together political philosophy and educational research to map out, critically analyse and offer alternatives to dominant debates on political education. It will be of interest and value to scholars examining the relationship between democracy and educational theory and practice. Edda Sant is Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. A former social studies teacher, her research interests lie in citizenship, political and democratic education. She has published widely in this field, and in 2016 was recognized with a Children’s Identity & Citizenship European Association Award.

This compilation explores the significance of religion for the controversies stirred up by populist politics in European and American contexts, engaging Jewish, Christian, and Islamic political thought. Moving beyond essentialist definitions of religion, the contributions offer critical interpretations and constructive interventions for political theology today.

This book explores the theoretical and practical implications of a global resurgence of populism on educational leadership. Drawing together a wide range of international authors, it examines how socio-cultural and political populist developments affect educational policies, organisations, and administration around the world. The collection addresses the forms and meanings of populism and examines their influence on education systems and institutions. It includes theoretical perspectives and rich examples from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Hungary, Nicaragua, the UK, and the US, exploring the complex influences and effects of populism on education policy, politics, and institutions in these countries. These include attacks on initiatives promoting equity and inclusion, the repression of academic freedom, the erosion of institutional autonomy from partisan political direction, and the suppression of evidence and expertise in policy and curriculum development. With its international and multidisciplinary outlook, this book will be highly relevant reading for researchers, scholars, and students in the fields of educational leadership and administration, higher education, and education policy, as well as those interested in the contemporary manifestations of populism on education.

Preface: State of Crisis -- Acknowledgements -- Section I Pandemic Landscapes -- 1. Pandemic Politics and Pedagogy in the Age of the Coronavirus -- 2. Militarized Pandemics and the Language of War -- Section II Populism and the Crisis of Education -- 3. The Ugly Terror of a Fascist Abyss and the Politics of Depoliticization -- 4. The Populist Pandemic and the Plague of Thoughtlessness Section III The Promise of History -- 5. Reading History Against Fascism in the Age of Trump -- 6. Law and Disorder in the Age of Organized Forgetting -- Section IV Thinking Beyond Plagues -- 7. The Plague of Inequality in the Age of Pandemics -- 8. Conclusion: Thinking Beyond a Covid-19 World -- Notes -- Index.

Democracy should enable citizens to play an informed role in determining how power is exercised for their common wellbeing, but this only works if people have the understanding, skills and confidence to engage effectively in public affairs. Otherwise, any voting system can be subverted to serve the interests of propagandists and demagogues. This book brings together leading experts on learning for democracy to explore why and how the gap in civic competence should be bridged. Drawing on research findings and case examples from the UK, the US and elsewhere, it will set out why change is necessary, what could be taught differently to ensure effective political engagement, and how a lasting impact in improving citizens’ learning for democratic participation can be made.

"Populism, a political movement with anti-elite, authoritarian and nativist tendencies, typically spearheaded by a charismatic leader, is an old phenomenon but also a very new and disturbing one at that. The Populist Temptation is an effort to understand the wellsprings of populist movements and why the threat they pose to mainstream political parties and pluralistic democracy has been more successfully contained in some cases than others"--

Populism is a central concept in the current media debates about politics and elections. However, like most political buzzwords, the term often floats from one meaning to another, and both social scientists and journalists use it to denote diverse phenomena. What is populism really? Who are the populist leaders? And what is the relationship between populism and democracy? This book answers these questions in a simple and persuasive way, offering a swift guide to populism in theory and practice. Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser present populism as an ideology that divides society into two antagonistic camps, the "pure people" versus the "corrupt elite," and that privileges the general will of the people above all else. They illustrate the practical power of this ideology through a survey of representative populist movements of the modern era: European right-wing parties, left-wing presidents in Latin America, and the Tea Party movement in the United States. The authors delve into the ambivalent personalities of charismatic populist leaders such as Juan Domingo Péron, H. Ross Perot, Jean-Marie le Pen, Silvio Berlusconi, and Hugo Chávez. If the strong male leader embodies the mainstream form of populism, many resolute women, such as Eva Péron, Pauline Hanson, and Sarah Palin, have also succeeded in building a populist status, often by exploiting gendered notions of society. Although populism is ultimately part of democracy, populist movements constitute an increasing challenge to democratic politics. Comparing political trends across different countries, this compelling book debates what the long-term consequences of this challenge could be, as it turns the spotlight on the bewildering effect of populism on today's political and social life.

Against a background of increasing inequality and a rising tide of nationalism and populism, this book raises concerns that curriculum is being shaped by powerful non-academic, non-accountable forces and that populism – and its manifestations – represent a grave challenge to learning. It explores the extent to which curriculum and learning methods in higher education should respond to this challenge. Using problem based learning as a case study it draws on crossdisciplinary studies to examine how regional, national and organizational perspectives emphasize different aspects of PBL. It questions whether PBL provides an effective response to external influences and a ‘populist’ highereducation agenda. In conclusion the book poses an uncomfortable question whether graduates reflect the external forces shaping curriculum and hence may be as vulnerable to populist rhetoric as non-graduates precisely because the curriculum and learning methods do not engage with the challenges. This book will appeal to scholars of problem based learning, as well as populism and therole of higher education in society.

"This book offers the first significant examination of the rise of neo-nationalism and its impact on the missions, activities, behaviors, and productivity of leading national universities. This book also presents the first major comparative exploration of the role of national politics and norms in shaping the role of universities in nation-states, and vice versa, and discusses when universities are societal leaders or followers-in promoting a civil society, facilitating talent mobility, in researching challenging social problems, or in reinforcing and supporting an existing social and political order"--

"The essays collected here explore how global, regional, national, and local structures of power produce angry politics. They go beyond conventional academic debates about populism to explore the different kinds of anger that shape politics today, and to make legible the multiplicity of forces, antagonisms, conflicts, and emergent political forms that mark the present"--